The duke tilted his head. “Perhaps.”
“I know he cares about Gabriella’s wellbeing. If I can convince him of my love for her, I think I may stand a chance.”
“And if you don’t?” Coventry asked. “Is Scotland an option?”
Sinking back against his chair, Raphe considered the question. “I’m not sure. I think Gabriella deserves better than that.”
“What did you do?” Warwick’s posture was more rigid than Gabriella had ever seen it. He’d just burst into the parlor where she was having tea with her mother and aunt, and now stood glaring down at her.
“Wha—what do you mean?” she asked, her teacup rattling slightly against its saucer as she set it aside.
“Fielding just called on me,” he practically spat.
“Fielding is here?” Gabriella’s mother asked as she looked toward the door.
“He was here,” Warwick said. “And he informed me that you have cried off your engagement to him, Gabriella, and that he has agreed to honor your wishes. There was nothing I could say to change his mind. Nothing at all.”
A rush of relief sailed through her on a wave of elation even as the room was pitched into silence. It was official. Her engagement to Fielding was over. It felt euphoric!
“What. Do. You. Mean?” Lady Warwick clipped with a bite that could snap an adder’s neck in half. She turned a frosty look of disapproval on Gabriella.
“It’s for the best,” Gabriella told her parents, who looked positively furious now. “I’m tired of being pushed and manipulated into something I do not want, of having my future planned by other people.”
“You mean by us?” Warwick asked tightly.
“I’ve never been allowed to be my own person.”
“We are your parents,” Lady Warwick told her sharply. “We know what’s best for you.”
“Do you?” Gabriella asked. “Do you really?”
“Of course we do!” they spoke in unison.
“Is that why I feel like a puppet? Because you know best? For the past year, I’ve been told what to wear, who to talk to, which parties to attend, and whom to marry. You have influenced everything without ever asking me if it was what I wanted.”
A nervous laugh escaped Lady Warwick. “Of course it’s what you wanted.”
“You know that’s not true,” Gabriella told her seriously. “It’s what you wanted.”
“Yes. It was,” Warwick spoke. “We wanted to bury the lingering effects of your sister’s stupidity by aligning ourselves with the most respectable family there is. Not just for our sakes, but for yours.” His face was set like stone. “And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you run off and marry some good-for-nothing scoundrel instead, because that’s what this is about, isn’t it, Gabriella? It’s that undeserving bounder next door.”
“Careful, Papa.” Gabriella glared at her father, and as she did so, she saw his eyes widen with what could only be defined as a newfound awareness of her. There was respect there now, perhaps even a little fear, as though he’d suddenly realized that she was capable of more than just being a bargaining chip. The steel in her voice had done that, and it provided her with a sense of assurance she’d never before possessed. It strengthened her resolve and made her feel as though she was capable of taking on anything, if the prize to be won was Raphe.
“You’re in love with him,” Warwick said. “You’re in love with Huntley.” His wife gasped, as though this were the most preposterous thing she’d ever heard.
It might well have been, Gabriella decided with no small measure of resentment. “Yes,” Gabriella said. She would not deny it. On the contrary, she would shout it from the rooftops, let the whole world know now that she’d found the courage to stand up for what she believed in.
“But do you know him?” Warwick asked. “Has he told you everything there is to know about his past? About him working in the docks as a common laborer?”
“He has told me everything, Papa,” Gabriella said.
“So you are aware that he’s also made quite a name for himself in St. Giles as a bare-knuckle fighter for Carlton Guthrie?”
“Oh dear,” Aunt Caroline murmured. It was the first thing she’d said since Warwick’s arrival.
Lady Warwick crossed herself, which was rather odd. She wasn’t Catholic, after all.
Gabriella glared at her father with newfound fury. “You’ve continued with your investigation of him, no doubt hoping that you would find some terrible secret to use against him. Well, I’ll have you know that I am perfectly aware of the man he is. I know how difficult his life has been, and if you have any shred of goodness left in you, you’ll let this matter rest before it threatens to ruin the most noble and honorable man I’ve ever known.”
